MAJ.-GEN. ARNOLD ELZEY.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

A captain in the United States Army.--His surrender of the Augusta Arsenal to the State of Georgia.-"The Blucher of Manassas."--Services in the Shenandoah Valley.-Wounded at Gaines' Mills.-His successful command of the Department of Richmond.

ARNOLD ELZEY was born in 1816, in Somerset county, Maryland. He graduated at West Point, in 1837, at the early age of twenty, and was assigned to the Second Regiment of Artillery. He served in this regiment and in the line (never being on staff duty) until he resigned from the United States army, in 1861, to offer his services to the Southern Confederacy.

In the first Florida war he bore a gallant and conspicuous part, as also in the campaigns of Mexico. He was at the siege of Fort Brown (the initiation of hostilities), and himself fired the first gun discharged in the Mexican War. He served with distinction through the entire struggle, and was brevetted captain for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco.

At the commencement of hostilities between the North and South, Capt. Elzey was in command of the Augusta (Georgia) arsenal, which was garrisoned by one company. He surrendered to the State of Georgia, and by this act incurred the displeasure of the Washington authorities, and was banished to Fortress Monroe. While at the Fortress, he tendered his resig nation to the Government, and asked for leave of absence, which was refused. He then made his escape to Baltimore, immedi ately after the secession of Virginia, and offered his services to his native State. Procrastination in the action of Maryland through her Governor, made it necessary for him to leave the State. He went directly to Montgomery, was commissioned by President Davis, and sent to Virginia, where he was assigned to

the command of the 1st Maryland regiment of infantry, then being organized. After the evacuation of Harper's Ferry, this regiment, together with the 10th Virginia (commanded by Col. Gibbons,-killed at McDowell), the 13th Virginia (Col. and afterwards Lieut.-Gen. A. P. Hill), the 3d Tennessee, (Col., afterwards Brig.-Gen. Vaughn), and the Newtown Battery, were organized as the Fourth Brigade of the Army of the Shenandoah, and Col. Elzey as senior officer was put in command; leaving the immediate command of the 1st Maryland regiment to Lieut.Col. George H. Stewart.

This brigade was distinguished at the First Manassas, arriving on the field when the scale of battle had almost turned against the Confederate side. Colonel Elzey received the highest praise for his gallantry, and the skill displayed by him on this occasion in handling his troops, and was personally complimented by Gen. Beauregard, who termed him the "Blucher of the Day." Elzey was promoted to the position of Brigadier-General, to date from the memorable 21st July, and his brigade was assigned to duty in the "Reserve Divison" of the Army of the Potomac, (Second Corps) then commanded by Gen. E. Kirby Smith, and afterwards by Gen. Ewell. Gen. Smith was very seriously wounded at Manassas, while within a few feet of Elzey; but the latter escaped injury, though exposed to the hottest fire. Elzey's brigade served as rear guard to the army, on the banks of the Rappahannock, after Gen. Johnston had moved the greater part of his command to the Peninsula, and was afterwards with the rest of the "Reserve Division" sent to join Jackson in the Valley. Gen. Elzey served through Jackson's celebrated Valley campaign

at Front Royal, Winchester, Bolivar Heights, Strasburg, and Cross Keys, on which last field he was slightly wounded and his horse killed under him. His wound prevented him from joining in the battle of the next day at Port Republic. The position of the Confederate forces at Cross Keys was selected by him, and Gen. Ewell frequently availed himself of Elzey's experience and advice during the engagement. The official reports of Jackson and Ewell will show the high esteem in which he was held by these officers.

At Gaines' Mills, on the 27th June, 1862, Elzey's brigade was in the thickest of the fight, and suffered heavy loss. Gen. Elzey

was severely wounded by a musket ball through the face and head, and was carried from the field. Captain T. O. Chestney, his Assistant Adjutant-General, was wounded through the shoulder; Lieut. C. W. McDonald, Acting Inspector, was killed, and Lieut. Fields, who took McDonald's place, was also killed.

After the recovery of the General, he was promoted MajorGeneral, and was assigned to the command of the Department of Richmond which then extended from the James River to the operations of Lee's army on the Potomac. While in command of this department, he organized the "Local Defence Brigade," composed of the government clerks and workmen in Richmond. This force afterwards did good service in repelling raids of the enemy, which were of frequent occurrence, and the safety of Richmond on several occasions was determined by the availability of this command. The capture of Dahlgren; the destruction of a Federal gunboat in James River; the defeat of Stoneman's, Kilpatrick's and Sheridan's attempts on Richmond, at various times, and the repulse of numberless raiding parties of the enemy, served to show the vigilance of Gen. Elzey while holding this important command. Gen. Lee complimented him in writing on the fine appearance and quick movements of his heavy artillery command, when ordered to distant parts of the department, and the entire forces serving in his command were always kept in efficient condition.

In the early months of 1864, Gen. Elzey was sent to Staunton to organize the "Maryland Line," and, after accomplishing all that could be done to that end, was transferred to the Army of Tennessee, where he was assigned to the command of all the artillery of Hood's forces. The peculiar organization of this command (attached to separate divisions and brigades) prevented Gen. Elzey from exhibiting his talents, except on one or two occasions in the retreat from Nashville; and the subsequent dissolution of Hood's army left him without a command during the short time that elapsed between that event and the general surrender of the Confederate forces.

Like many others of the military leaders of the Confederacy, Gen. Elzey has, since the war, betaken himself to the peculiarly retired life of a farmer, and has exchanged the sword for the implements of industry.

MAJ.-GEN. SAM JONES.

CHAPTER XLIX.

Early military services in the field, at West Point and at Washington.-Appointed on Gen. Beauregard's staff.-Commands Bartow's Brigade.-Ordered to Pensacola. Various services on the Western theatre of the War.-Commands the Trans-Alleghany Department.-Relieves Gen. Beauregard at Charleston.-Defence of Tallahassee.-Breadth and variety of his military experience.

THE subject of our sketch was born in Powhatan county, Virginia, in the year 1819. His ancestors, the Joneses, Moseleys, and Gileses, were among the earliest English settlers in that part of Virginia, where many of their descendants reside to this day. Sam Jones, after obtaining the early education usually given to the sons of Virginia gentlemen, graduated at West Point in 1841, and for several years subsequent was assigned to duty in that On the 24th academy as assistant professor of mathematics. December, 1853, he was promoted to a captaincy in his regiment, and joined his company on the Mexican frontier at Larado (Fort McIntosh), Texas. In 1855 he was appointed commandant and professor of engineering in the Georgia Military Institute, but resigned the chair of instruction after filling it for a few months. In the autumn of 1858 he was assigned to duty in the War Department at Washington, and was at the seat of the government during the stormy and eventful sessions of Congress On the secession of preceding the dissolution of the Union. Virginia, he threw up his commission,* and transferred his military fortunes to the service of his native State.

* Once for all, we may notice here a vapid and common remark in Northern newspapers with reference to the conduct of those army-officers born in the Southern States who resigned their commissions to take up arms for their native States, on

His first noticeable service was on the field of Manassas, 1861, in the capacity of Chief of Artillery and Ordnance on Gen. Beauregard's staff. On the day succeeding the battle, President Davis appointed him a Brigadier-General, and Gen. Johnston assigned him to the command of the brigade at the head of which the gallant and lamented Bartow had fallen. It was composed. of the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th Georgia regiments, 1st Kentucky, and Alburtis's battery of Virginia field artillery. This body of troops afterwards did long and gallant service in Virginia, under different commanders; but as early as January, 1862, Gen. Jones was ordered to report to Gen. Bragg at Pensacola, and afterwards, on promotion as Major-General, had various commands in the West. These were without remarkable incident. He com

their secession from the Union. They have been flippantly and constantly accused of ingratitude, because it was said that the United States had educated them. But, in this regard, their gratitude was due to their States, and every motive of patriotism and generosity urged them to respond to their call in the hour of danger. To their States they owed their military education. The military school at West Point was common to all the States. Each had the right to send there a certain number of cadets, just as each had the right (now like other rights denied them) to send a certain number of Senators and Representatives to the Congress at Washington. Indeed, the cadets, with the exception of ten each year, who, by special act, were selected by the President, were taken from Congressional districts, and were nominated, and, in effect, appointed by their representatives in Congress.

As for the political integrity of these resignations from the U. S. Army, it is well known that, while its officers meddled but little with politics, they had their opinions as other educated gentlemen on the public questions of the day, and that a very large majority entertained the "State-Rights" theory of the government. They believed that the citizen of the State owed allegiance to the United States only by virtue of the relation of the State to the General Government. If Virginia had not (unfortunately, as it now appears,) ratified the Constitution and become one of the United States, her citizens would not have been citizens of the United States. But the action of the State controlled the citizen, no matter how strongly he disapproved of that action. It was plain to the ordinary mind that, when the interest and safety of her citizens demanded it, the State had the same right to secede from, that she had to accede to, the Union; and that the action of the Convention which dissolved its connection with the United States was as binding on its citizens as the action of the Convention which made her a State of the Union. And this, we believe, has always been the belief of a large majority of the Southern people. Patrick Henry, President Monroe, and others, who, as members of the Convention, opposed the ratification of the old Constitution, yielded to the action of the State as expressed by the Convention of the people. So in 1861, other Virginians, equally intelligent and patriotic, yielded obedience to the action of the Convention which they disapproved, and cast in their lot with their State.